


The Moment of Clarity

by loversandantiheroes



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-07-26
Updated: 2013-07-26
Packaged: 2017-12-21 09:57:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 709
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/898953
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/loversandantiheroes/pseuds/loversandantiheroes
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>An alternate version of the Rumbelle reunion scene in A Land Without Magic.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Moment of Clarity

**Author's Note:**

> This was brought on by a few conversations between myself and rumpledlace about how we felt things should’ve gone in A Land Without Magic when the curse broke and Belle got her memories back. This is mostly for the sake of experimentation for me as I’ve not really tried Belle’s POV yet. And a cookie to anyone who gets the two lyrical references in this fic - hint: the title is one of them.

Magic passed through her like a shudder, making her dizzy, clouding her vision.  She halted, wavering, for a moment finding wonder in the leaves that crunched beneath her feet, in the birdsong she could hear from trees.  Memories collided with each other in her head, jostling for attention, each crying out louder than the last.  Her name, forgotten for gods only knew how long, swam up to meet her.

Then, from ahead of her, came a voice both strange and familiar, a voice she had in all truth only heard once before.

"Come on," it said, “we need to keep going."

A lightness seized her heart as the figure ahead swam into focus.  He was a slight man, yet taller than she, his clothing the color of soot, the cut strange.  He leaned heavily upon a cane, trying to take the weight off one awkwardly twisted ankle.  Everything about him now was strange.  Different.  But she remembered his face as she had seen it in his shop, soft eyes staring at her, disbelieving.  She had held that face in her hands once, watching the corruption of his curse fade.

Five years in a dungeon tower could not purge that image from her mind, that moment of clarity when the Beast was nearly overthrown and she had seen the man beneath.  His eyes had been a deep, warm brown, wide and wondering and somehow kind.  

The girl she had been for so long, that dazed, nameless, half-mad thing locked away in a cell, she had forgotten that, had forgotten everything.  Nearly a year spent in the Dark One’s estate, unraveling the threads so carefully woven to guard the truth behind his deeds: that he was no monster, but a man possessed.  Now, like a breath of life, magic had filled her, restored her and she was Belle-Marie de Villeneuve once more.  She remembered every moment.  And she could never  _ever_  forget those eyes.

"I tried," she said, her voice too loud in such a quiet place.  Above, a small flock of roosting sparrows took to the sky in a flurry of startled wing beats.

Rumpelstiltskin turned awkwardly.  "What?"

Belle almost lost herself again as she looked up at him.  Skin pink, healthy, no longer greenish gold and leathern.  Hair sleek, not wild, and shot with silver.  She wondered for a heartsick moment if his appearance meant his curse had been lifted - had he found another?  Had someone at last done what she could not?  Her head worried, but her heart spoke otherwise.  There was no other, there could not be.  Her kiss - true love’s kiss - had nearly broken his curse.  It had only been by strength of will that his curse had persisted.

"What is it?" he prompted, creeping down the slope towards her, a touch of concern in his face.

She lifted her hands helplessly.  "I tried to come back for you."

Shock made him lose his footing and Rumpelstiltskin almost fell, catching himself awkwardly with his cane.  "Wh… _Belle?_ ”

"I tried to come back for you, I did," she carried on.  Tears filled her eyes, but she could not close them.  Somehow she was afraid he might disappear if she did.  "I made it as far as the King’s March road, but Regina, she captured me, kept me prisoner."

The ground seemed to sway as he came closer, fixing her with a look of such utter incredulity that it was as if he had come to question her reality as much as she did his.

"She held me for years.  She tormented me, showed me things that could never be real.  Tell me  _you’re_  real.  Please, Rumpelstiltskin, tell me this is you and not some cruel magic trick."

He caught her outstretched hand and she broke, sobbing, tears streaming down her cheeks, and laced her fingers tightly with his.  The world reeled around her, the lightness in her chest expanding, so that she felt for a moment tethered to reality only by his touch.  She was flying.  She was falling.  It was a joy so complete and urgent that she ached with it.

"It’s me, Belle, it’s really me."  He pressed her knuckles hard to his lips and Belle felt warm tears on the back of her hand.


End file.
